RPI researchers awarded grant to advance “scarless” surgery

Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have secured a $2.7 million grant to develop the first-ever virtual reality simulator for “scarless” endoscopic surgery.

Funded by the United States National Institutes of Health, the four year study seeks to develop an emerging surgical technique called NOTES. NOTES has the potential for operating in the human abdomen with no external incisions, no external scarring, less pain and a lower risk of post-operative infection and immobility.

This will be possible by inserting a flexible endoscope through a natural orifice, such as the mouth. A small internal incision in the stomach or colon then allows the endoscope access to the abdominal cavity. The process would make it possible to remove the pancreas or appendix through a patient’s mouth, for example.

Rensselaer Professor Suvranu De, who is leading the study, said NOTES will benefit from computer-based modeling and simulation that will avoid costly and slow animal testing—currently the norm for testing “scarless” procedures. His team will develop a touch-sensitive virtual reality simulator for NOTES, which will build on De’s NIH-funded work on creating simulation technology for laparoscopic surgery.